23 April, 2016

Cyber wars: Already a common practice in Cold War 2.0?

Years ago
the Stuxnet virus showed the possibility of anonymous “kinetic”
attacks in the cyber arena, leading many military and defense
analysts to worry that World War III may be carried out with a
keyboard.

On Thursday,
senior cybersecurity officials from the US and Russia began two-day
meetings in Geneva. The US says that the two countries are renewing
efforts to prevent rushing into a cyber war “by mistake,” but
many wonder what defines a "cyber war," and whether it
actually poses a credible risk.

In recent
years, America has pushed the boundaries of cyberwarfare while
Western media focused on imagined threats from Russian and Chinese
hackers. Beginning in 2010, with Operation Olympic Games, the US and
their Israeli counterparts released the Stuxnet virus, crippling
Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and demonstrating the potential of
"kinetic effects" as a result of cyberwarfare.

[...]

Recently, a
series of cyberattacks by Iran demonstrated that turnabout is fair
play. A federal indictment was issued against several Iranian
officials for hackers engaging not only in market manipulation but
also attempting to cripple a dam in New York state that, if it had
been successful, could have resulted in substantial loss of life and
long-term agricultural damage.

With the
purported specter of cyber war moving from the realm of science
fiction to a leading national security distraction, Sputnik’s Brian
Becker sat down on Friday with journalists Dmitry Babich and Declan
McCullagh to discuss the cooperative meetings between US and Russian
officials and whether the so-called new Cold War has already migrated
online.